I have a '99 sportsman 500 that will only idle with the choke on full. It has a carb kit put in around the start of winter. Anyone have any ideas what to check or what kind of adjustments may be needed? It runs good otherwise but I have to put it on full choke if I need to have it idle.

 

have u tried adjusting the idle screw?

 

Yea we can get it to idle with the idle screw but it will eventually go out of wack. So we're constantly adjusting it up and down. It seems to have a rough idle to me too. Starts up easy enough though and is smooth and responsive on the throttle, it's just the idle.

 

Sounds like you may have some trash in the pilot jet if idling is a problem and choke is needed or could be because of a cam starting to wear as your model was in the problem years on cams. Just pop the valve cover,check the valve clearance(.006 intake and exhaust) plus make sure the cam exhaust lobe isn't showing signs of wear.

 

ok will do, thanks for the tips. I'll let you know what I find out. I didn't suspect any garbage in the jets cause of a new carb kit and the old gas had been run out before the carb kit but ya never know.

 

your pilot jet controls from idle to 1/4 throttle so it's most likely as he stated about dirt or something in the jet or that circuit.

 

interesting to know, I'm new to working on atv's but not to engines in general. Carburetors are a whole new thing to me. Maybe I had some crud in the tank or something that worked it's way into the carb.

 

would the choke effect it at all? I notice there's room for adjustment on the choke cable at least on my older polaris or does that just effect when the choke is actually turned on? I messed with the adjustment on my old one, it had alot of play in the choke switch, tightened it up, just curious if that effects idle or just when you have the choke on.

 

You need to have a little slack in the choke lever or pull **** depending on the model. 1/8" slack or so is ok. This is just to make sure the choke plunger bottoms out in the carb opening and will only affect fuel mixture when you open it.If you take up all the slack in the choke cable,you could actually be letting a little more fuel in causing it to run rich.